Profile Major Works Resources

Hans Neisser, 1895-1975

Born in Wroclaw (then Breslau, Germany), Hans Philipp Neisser originated from an assimilated Jewish family.  Neisser studied law and economics at Freiburg, Munich and Breslau until 1916, and subsequently served as a soldier for the remainder of WWI.  Neisser received his doctorate in the aftermath in 1919-20.  Neisser went on to join the staff of the German Socialization Committee in Berlin form 1922 to 1924.  In 1925, Neisser launched the left-leaning weekly business magazine Wirtschaft.   He was subsequently appointed to a government commission to investigate German production in 1926.  

In 1927, Hans Neisser joined the Kiel Institute, where he would quickly flourish. His 1928 treatise on monetary economics was well-received and served as his habilitation at the University of Kiel.

Hans Neisser may today be best remembered by modern economists for his 1932 critique of the Walras-Cassel model which helped prompt the Vienna Colloquium into action. However, Neisser's other contributions to monetary theory (esp. what he called "circuit velocity", e.g. 1928, 1931, 1933),  structural growth and cycle theory (e.g. 1936, 1961) and econometrics - and philosophy (e.g. 1971) - bear out Schumpeter's description of him as "one of the most brilliant economic minds" of his generation.

However, Neisser's early achievements were shadowed by the tumult into which his career was thrown. As a German Jew, social democrat and researcher at the Kiel Institute, Neisser was among the first to be expelled during the Nazi ascendancy - in spite of the extraordinary efforts made by the Kiel directors to retain him. He subsequently moved to the United States in 1933, where he became the first Jew to receive a position at the University of Pennsylvania. However, seven years later, Neisser was still untenured because "he couldn't get along with anyone". He gravitated to the New School for Social Research, where he joined his old Kiel colleagues, Adolph Lowe, Gerhard Colm and Jacob Marschak, where he remained for the rest of his career.

 

  

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Major works of Hans Neisser

  • "Zur Theorie des wirtschaftlichen Gleichgewichts", 1927, Kölner sozialpolitische Vierteljahresschrift
  • Der Tauschwert des Geldes, 1928.
  • "Lohnsenkung als Heilmittel gegen Arbeitslosigkeit?", 1930, Magazin der Wirtschaft.
  • "Des Kreislauf des Geldes", 1931, WWA
  • "Kredit und Konjuktur nach J.M. Keynes", 1931, WWA
  • "Lohnhöle und Beschäftigungsgrad im Marktgleichgewicht", 1932, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv.
  • " Umlaufsgeschwindigkeit der Bankdepositen", 1933, Handworterbuch des Bankwesens
  • "Offentliche Kapitalagen in ihrer Wirkung auf Beschaftigungsgrad", 1933, Economic Essays in honor of Gustav Cassel
  • "General Overproduction", 1934, JPE.
  • "Commentary on Keynes", 1936, Social Research
  • Some International Aspects of the Business Cycle, 1936.
  • "Investment Fluctuations as Causes of the Business Cycle", 1937, Social Research
  • "Permanent Technological Unemployment: Demand for commodities is not demand for labor", 1942, AER
  • "Government Net Contribution and Foreign Balance as Offset to Savings", 1944, RES.
  • "The Significance of Foreign Trade for Domestic Employment", 1946, Social Research.
  • "Keynes as an Economist", 1946, Social Research
  • National incomes and international trade: a quantitative analysis with F. Modigliani, 1953.
  • "Balanced Growth under Constant Returns to Scale: Some comments", 1954, Econometrica
  • "Critical Notes on the Acceleration Principle", 1954, QJE
  • "Depreciation, Replacement and Regular Growth", 1955, EJ
  • "Cyclical Fluctations and Economic Growth", 1961, Oxford EP
  • On the Sociology of Knowledge: an essay, 1965.
  • "Competitive Equilibrium: Existence and approach", 1968, JPE.
  • "Are Space and Time Real?", 1971, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.

 

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Resources on  Hans Neisser

 

 
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